Mass Effect: Dark Webs
by InheritanceConfessor2011
Summary: Mass Effect: Dark Webs - (Rate M) Eden Prime is suddenly attack by unlikely enemy, pulling Commander Shepard and his crew into web of lies, as he journey's to find the truth. Need Beta Reader.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bioware or Mass Effect**

**Rate M**

**Author Note: **I never understood why an individual as powerful and as well connected as Saren would risk revealing his loyalties by attacking Eden Prime directly rather than using middlemen to do his dirty work for him. Yes, I know, it's part of story plot but it just doesn't make much sense when you consider his character and the reapers generally work through middle men until the harvest begins...

**Need a Beta Reader!**

**Mass Effect: Dark Webs**

**History**

In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spare faring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artefacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time.

They called it the greatest discovery in human history.

The civilizations of the galaxy call it...

Mass Effect

**Serpent Nebula – Citadel **

Councillor Tevo silently watched the presidium below her as half dozen different races went about their daily business around the ancient space station simply known as the Citadel.

For almost 400 years now she had acted as Asari councillor on the Citadel, softly guiding the peoples of the galaxy with her wisdom to a brighter future of unity and peace. The Citadel was the nexus of the galactic community; the political, cultural, and financial capital of civilized space, housing the grand Citadel Council, a powerful, multi-species governing body created by her own species over fifteen hundred years ago.

Unfortunately her species could not lay claim to creating the engineering wonder that was known as the Citadel, instead they had simply found it abandoned at the heart of the mass relay network.

Current evidence suggested that the 50 mile long space station had been created by the now extinct space faring race known simply has the Protheans, that travelled the stars close to 50 thousand years ago. Predictably, with their extinction it made many people wonder why? With many experts from multiply different species coming up with their own unique and colourful theories to explain their unexpected extinction. Unfortunately for everyone there was very little evidence of prothean civilization remaining, besides shattered and badly broken ruins of old settlements, preventing the creation of any solid theories to explain their disappearance, with most individuals simply accepting that the Protheans had somehow wiped themselves outs. Whilst there were many academic arguments that discounted this theory as simply rubbish, people and governments just wanted to accept the explanation that they wiped themselves out in a galactic civil war, rather than worry about the other more realistic alternative scenarios to explain away the Protheans sudden disappearance from the galaxy.

However her own species had found evidence just over four centuries ago that suggested a far more disturbing end, and that the Protheans had been destroyed by their own artificial creations after experimenting with dangerous A.I technology. Predictably, the evidence was extremely limited and highly corrupted after such an extensive period of time, but that was to be expected after fifty thousand years of decay.

Nevertheless the citadel council had immediately acted on the new disturbing information and banned all A.I research recognising the potential danger it represented to citadel community. Whilst sealing away the disturbing evidence to prevent any possible panic amongst the populace that could potentially destabilize the economy. Unsurprisingly there had been opposition to the new law, but with several well documented events involving rogue A.I that had occurred over the previous decades led to most species adopting and fully implementing the new law, with only the Quarians totally disregarding their warnings and the law.

Appropriately the rogue quarians fell prey to their own arrogance when their synthetic servants suddenly became self aware, and the Morning War started leading to the 'Geth' successful driving their organic creators into exile and out of their home star systems in the Perseus Veil.

Even those it had been over 300 years since the Geth uprising, the horrifying memories were imprinted into her mind. She could still remember those frightening days as news spread across citadel space of the Geth uprising, as hourly reports came flooding across her desk, as she and the other citadel councillors were confronted with possibility of the first galactic war between organic and machine. What intensified the fear even more for them, was the private knowledge the three Councillors shared only between themselves, that similar events had possibly lead to Protheans own unexpected extinction by hands of their own A.I servants. Then the desperate homeless quarians immigrants had predictably turned up on the citadel council door step asking for help and military assistance in retaking their home world from the Geth.

But fear had influenced the council combined decision, as she and her two other councillors had readily agreed to make an example out of the remaining homeless quarians, banning them from citadel space, stripping them of their citadel membership, condemning the quarians to exile as warning to the other races for disobeying citadel law. Effectively condemning the Quarians to exile and continuous wandering across the nameless star systems, until they cleaned up the mess they had foolishly created.

There was also the private hope it would prevent the Geth from identifying them as allies of the quarians and leave them be. In hindsight the decision had been overly harsh, but a necessary evil to ensure peace for rest of council races. And has any good politician she had to look out for her own people's interest before the foolish Quarians. It was also hoped at time it would discourage the Baterians from challenging the Citadel Council's authority if they saw the council taking a harder stance on law breakers.

And now 300 years later they were dealing with Quarian's mess once again, as she reread the report on increase Geth activity along the broader, and sightings of heavily armoured dreadnought class vessels. "Are these reports accurate?" Councillor Tevo asked her Salarian counterpart, who was busy reading his own reports.

"Unfortunately yes," Councillor Valern quickly comfirmed, as he blinked his two lagre reptilian eyes. "STG is investigating futher. Additional assets being deployed to the surrounding star systems to monitor the situation."

Nodding her head as she accepted the news, Salarian STG agents were best intelligent gathering operatives in galaxy, and would surly provide them with accurate Intel of the unfolding situation. "Has Sparatus been made aware of the situation?" she asked, wondering if the Turian councillor was fully informed.

"Of course, he is rather confident that the Hierarchy will be capable of handling any Geth aggression into our space," Valern offered quickly, but she notice the subtle change in his body landague that sugguested otherwise.

"But you disagree?" she asked, as she moved away from the window to one of the free seats.

"The Turian miltary is capable, but it would also over stretch council partol fleets, weakening our broaders to possible pirate attacks. And that would destablized trade, weaking our ecomonies, and that in turn would destablize the populace causing futher unrest as people stop investing their money, and that in turn would futher destablized the citideal ecomony and taxation even futher, undermining our collective reasources, and ability to maintain sercuity without increasing taxation. With would cause more resentment and civil unrest, and undermine trade, weaking us futher in a visious cycle of decay," Valern quickly explained without looking up from his data pad, as she mentally went over the salarian's concerns, before concluding that the concerns was well founded and protentially dangerous to every citideal race.

Already knowing her quick thinking counterpart already had a possible solution to the issue, she turned to face him again, "I guess you have a soluation to this problem?" she asked with minor smile on her blue lips, as salarian worked his omi tool.

A sly smile appeared on his aging features, "Naturally," he chipped whilst contining with his valauble work, before realizing she was expecting an longer answer "The Alliance. They can help shoulder the burden."

Considering the sugguestion for moment as she thought about the youngest space faring race. "That could work," she admitted, knowing that the Human miltary was extremly capable force, whilst wondering how best to get humanity to play ball and asist them in maintaining peace. "The Turians won't be happy, you know what they think of humans." She noted, voicing a possible problem to their plans.

"I don't care if Turians are happy, our security is far more important than their oversize egos," Valern stated, making his position clear on the subject.

**Mass Effect: Dark Webs**

**Chapter 1**

Feeling the relaxing hum of the mass effect drive core beneath his boots, the gentle pulses running through his harden muscles stimulating the element zero buried in his blood and bones, as the dark energy within his body sang beneath its smoothing caress whilst he carefully read intelligence reports on his upcoming mission.

He was Commander John Shepard of Alliance Special Forces, a N7 Vanguard Operative trained for extreme combat no matter the environment or conditions, capable of killing a krogan with his bare hands, or snapping a man's back with well placed biotic field, as he carefully took another sip of his coffee.

He was also a war hero, an icon that the Alliance military liked to have stand in front of cameras for posters and media aids despite his own objections to media coverage. But as politicians and upper brass say, 'People need heroes; they need role models,' so despite his objections he was made one by Alliance brass. But at heart he was a soldier, enjoying the structure and propose in life the career gave him. Why was he chosen as a role model? He was a story, a testament that a person could change, to grow past their roots.

His early life had been full of hardship that only an orphan living on the back streets of Earth could fully understand, living day to day, doing whatever necessary to endure, to put food in his mouth, a life full of crime. However it wasn't the life he wanted, so when he finally turned 16 he enlisted with the alliance military, with the intention of making a new better life for himself. An honourable life away from crime, a life full of meaning and purpose, that only the Alliance military could offer him. 10 years later with alot of hard work, guts, skill, and good dose of lady luck, he was now one of the most well respected officers within the Alliance military, a rising star, stationed on state of art prototype warship called the Normandy under the command of the legendary Captain Anderson.

He had served under Captain Anderson many times in last 10 years, with the captain easily winning his respect and acting as his role model, and father figure he always wanted to have. And he to in return acted like the son the captain always wanted but could never have since being in military. That was the only major downside of the military, the inability to make long term commitments like having a family, since every battle could be your last. However at same time one joined a ancient brotherhood, a family of sisters and brothers who you could laugh and joke with. And as an orphan, that was something he loved, despite the pain of losing someone in combat. But then you had your blood brothers and sisters to grieve with, to toast with a good bottle of moonshine.

Despite this, he had no regrets about his decision of joining 10 years ago, and if the rumour mill was true, there was talk of promotion coming his way. Of course the rumour mill was often more wrong than right, with basic truths getting twisted and changed by bored marines with two much time on their hands.

He on the other hand studied, or trained whenever he was off duty or had hull in his free time, along with the rest of marine attachment responsible for ship security and ground operations. He had several good reasons for doing so, during his childhood days he had been in a gang called the Tenth Street Reds, and had totally disregarded his education in favour of hanging with them, running drugs, knocking over stores, and that in hindsight he considered to be one of his biggest regrets of his troublesome youth.

That lack of basic education held him back when it came to climbing to the higher military ranks, where intelligent was key, and good academic grades were considered in any promotion, and frankly on personal level he didn't like the idea of being consider a simple 'dumb grunt'. Once again thinking about his old street, the Reds, they had grown into formable criminal organisation on the back streets of Earth in last decade and half based on Alliance intel reports. And it sickened him to know that he was partly responsible for their rise, even if his role in events had been so minor in hindsight.

That was one of thing he learnt as soldier, taking responsibly for your actions, for your mistakes, and fixing them.

Refocusing back on intelligence reports for his upcoming mission, as he carefully read up on the history of prothean devises and the colony of Eden Prime. Eden Prime was a garden world on the edge of human controlled space, with small human colony on the planet surface. Eden Prime had been colonized just over a decade ago by the first human explorers, and since then the new human colony had steadily grown despite its isolation on the frontier and the consent threat of attack from pirate gangs and slavers. To point it now housed a small population of around 20 thousand humans, with small Alliance military present overlooking the frontier colony of about 5 hundred marines. Eden Prime was very much like Earth in terms of atmosphere, gravity, and climate, making it an attractive choice for settlement. However it turned out that Eden Prime was also a former prothean world, with large number of ruins buried beneath it grassy surface, which prevented fast pace colonization under the Alliance and council heritage laws that protected important historical sites from being destroyed, such as prothean ruins.

Eden Prime was also a point of political tension with the Citadel Council, as Humanity jealously guarded the world from the advances of Citadel species. Despite the colony's isolated location on the frontier and small alliance military force, it was far from being an easy target; since it had one of the best defence grids possible to help protect it from slaver and pirates wishing to plunder the colony, and the growing stash of prothean artefacts for themselves.

Eden Prime was proving to be one of the biggest finds of prothean technology in the last two centuries, and under Citadel law, prothean ruins and any prothean technology found had to be openly shared with the other species, but in practise it didn't work out that way. Sharing often goes both ways, and Humanity's leaders strongly expected that the citadel species had their own secret horde of prothean technology locked away for their own benefit advancement, keeping them in control of the galaxy.

Then there was fact that whilst humanity was at peace with citadel council, and was a member species with good open relations with the alternative government, they also were warily of the council after the First Contact War. The First Contact War had been a very small war by galactic standards; lasting only 3 months in total and had ended when another citadel council race called the Asari intervened and negotiated a ceasefire and later a truce between the two races. The Asari unlike the Turians weren't militaristic in nature, preferring to solve problems and conflict through discussion. But it had left a lasting impression on human race after the unprovoked attack on human world of Shanxi. Gone was wonder and awe of earlier exploration, gone was romance and appeal of the frontier, as Humanity's eyes were violently opened to numerous threats around them. Since that day they first meet the Turians, the military powerhouse between the citadel council control space, the Humans and Turians had been at odds with each other.

After all, you weren't going to share advance military technologies with a possible enemy were you?

"Commander Shepard, please report to the CIC, Captain Anderson wises to speak with you," Normandy's helmsmen declared suddenly over the coms, interrupting his reading.

**Mass Effect**

Quickly gearing up in his trademark Black N7 combat armour, the light weight armoured plates easily slotting into place as he swiftly got ready to response to emergency distress called from Eden Prime. His mind replayed the distress call, looking for any hint or clue that could give him an advantage in this upcoming engagement.

Thinking over the possible motives to explain the unexpected attack on the small colony, while he considered the comprehensive intel reports he been reading hours earlier. The only thing of any real value the small colony had what made it worth attacking was either the recently found Prothean beacon, that had been accidently unearth during construction of new living district, or it was basic slave raid by Batarian pirate gangs that preyed on human settlements. He hate Batarians with a cold burning passion, the four eyed humanoid species had been causing the Alliance and Humanity problems from the first day their two species meet. He could honestly say Batarians were the only race he hated, that he would kill without any hesitation or doubt. And the Batarians hated him just as badly to; to the point that their government had placed a bounty on his head for 50 thousand credits for his role in Skyillian Blitzs. Not that it mattered anymore with him being stationed on one warship or another, surrounded by fellow marines, making him an extremely difficult target for any brave bounty hunters. After all he had no fear of betrayal from his fellow marines, since no human would willingly sell him out to batarian scrum.

Then he had been part of the retaliatory attack on batarian colony of Tofhan, the base and origins of batarian attacks during Skyillian Blitzs. The attack of Tofhan had been a meat grinder of battle, a death trap, as Alliance marine squad fought their way through heavy defended bunkers. But despite the high loses they suffered, he had pushed on and achieved his objective, before holding his position for over 48 hours under intense enemy counter attack before finally being relieved by reinforcements, providing the alliance brass with a victory stolen from jaws of defeat. But his actions had also pushed into elite status within the Alliance military, as they saw him as a man that got the job done, that would hold the line, as the rest of humanity proclaimed him a war hero, saviour.

So to Humanity and the Alliance he was war hero, to the Batarians he was a butcher, a villain, to the point he was called the Butcher of Tofhan. But he didn't care; he just got the job done, and like Anderson had wisely said, 'One man's hero is another man's villain'. The Alliance command had given him orders, and he had ruthlessly completed them as order. War was war as far as he was concerned, and the Baterians had finally got what their justly deserved. Besides, who cared what a race of slavers and pirates thought?

Naturally the Citadel Council made show of protesting about Humanities over the top reaction against the Batarians as they called it, but the wider galaxy didn't care, as far as they were concerned the Batarians had got what was coming to them after provoking the Alliance military. Humanity had step up that day in eyes of galaxy; they had shown that unlike the Citadel Council they wouldn't ignore such transgressions against them and their citizens. His name would be forever tied to those historical events.

Since that day, Humanity and Batarians had been in state of cold war with each, both fighting through middle parties and covert operations.

A war that the Alliance was winning to the point that the Batarians had closed their embassy on the Citadel in protest, but no one cared, to point shares prices in number of alliance companies jumped in value that day. Most species were naturally happy to see the slavers go and withdraw from Citadel controlled space. After all, it had been simple choice for the politicians on the Citadel Council to make, the enlighten Humans or the archaic Batarians? The answer was never in question. Turning his attention back to the task at hand, as he checked his combat suit's internal combat system, before turning on and off the kinetic barriers to find they were functioning correctly.

The only logical reason to attack the isolated, but highly fortified colony was for procession of the prothean beacon, and the technological secrets locked away inside. The ancient beacon could potentially jump their technological understanding by another century of development, making it highly attractive target for a quick raid. After all there were far more exposed worlds with far larger populations what slavers and pirate gangs could attack outside Alliance controlled space within the Terminus systems, and wouldn't have to fear direct retaliation from Alliance government as result of their actions.

Like most soldiers, he didn't question orders; he just got the job done, but truthfully he questioned these orders, since it just seemed plain stupid handing over the prothean beacon to the Citadel Council then the other races already had such a greater hold on the reigns of the galaxy. The beacon's secrets could have the Alliance to catch up, but instead the Alliance and parliament had decided to play nice and share. Personally he had nothing against other aliens; expect Baterians but that was rational mistrust considering his history with them. He always tried to judge people on case by case bases, but he _would _always protect Earth and Alliance first even if he did become a Spectre, like Captain Anderson was suggesting.

"5 minutes from drop zone," Joker, their helmsmen announced over the ships internal speakers, as he checked his standard alliance assault rifle, shotgun, and sniper rifle before storing half dozen grenades on his combat belt whilst privately hoping that Spectres were better armed than regular marines, as the rest of the ground team gather around him, just as Captain Anderson appeared from the elevator with the Turian spectre in tow.

Looking over at the man that was closest thing he had to father. "Commander, here are your orders, secure the prothean beacon for extraction, that is your top and only priority," the ship captain boomed over noise of cargo bay, as he nodded in understanding to his mentor and friend.

"What about survivors Captain?" Kaidan Alenko asked, whilst he locked his pistol in place on his right lip.

"They are secondary priority," the Captain confirmed looking over at him making sure he heard him, as he bent down to put combat knife in his boot, as the cargo bays doors slowly opened, revealing the burning colony off in distance, heavy black smoke climbing into air.

"Nihlus, you're coming with us?" Jerkins, their newest crew member asked with awe, as the turian spectre leaped into action, not even sparing the green horn marine a look. Rolling his eyes at the young marines' behaviour, whilst privately hoping he didn't get himself killed or the rest of them due to his stupidity.

"I'll move faster on my own," Nihlus declared before leaping out of Normandy's cargo bay, shotgun already in hand.

"Arrogant son of bitch," he muttered just loud enough to be heard as captain normally stern features cracked at the commander's colourful remarks, as the other two marines by his side grinned at his remark.

"Reminds me of someone I know, Commander," Captain Anderson replied with broad smile before turning serious again. "Nihlus will scout out head, and feed you status reports throughout the mission," as he nodded in understanding. "Good luck Shepard, the mission is yours now commander," patting on shoulder.

Nodding to two soldiers either side of him, who nodded back confirming they were ready, before leaping off the Normandy's landing ramp, his padded boots hitting the soil of Eden prime, kicking up reddish dust as he scanned the surrounding air for hostiles, as he heard two more people drop down behind him, before Normandy's engines suddenly powered up returning the warship to orbit above the planet. "Let's move people," he declared with hint of urgently, the navigation mark popping up on his helmet view screen, the yellow triangle marker marking the last known location of the beacon, and the distance. Running along the nature rocky path to his left, "What are those things?" Jerkins asked as pair of floating air bags floated drift pasted them.

"Air bags, used by archaeologist to help lift heavy objects without using lifting equipment" he offered, "What _you _thought that was alien?" silencing the new marine, wondering why the guy signed up if he was that jumpy, even on his home planet before his radio activated.

"Shepard there alot of bodies," the Turian operative grimy informed them over the suit's inbuilt communication system.

"Any sign of hostiles?" he asked, as he moved into cover behind a reddish rock as the two supporting marines moved into their own cover.

"Negative, I see the spaceport up a head, I'm going to check it out," before the radios went silent.

Moving forward and sinking down to one knee to scan the area, noticing from cliff face he could see the settlement off in distance, with heavy black smoke rising into sky from the burning buildings, as well noting that the anti aircraft towers looked intact, as well the lack of cover along the cliff race. 'Perfect place for ambushed' he noted just as Alenko vocally express what he was thinking. "This is good place for ambush, keep your guard up."

Silently gesturing with flick of his rifle for Jerkins to advance, the young marine moving slowly out of cover like a scared rabbit, just as a powerful shot echoed out, instantly ending Jerkins life, as spray of blood and brain mattered existed the back of Jerkin head, as his body dropped to ground below, like a dummy that just had it strings cut.

"Sniper!" he shouted whilst pressing himself back into cover as round hit rock face he was sheltering behind, as he swapped to his sniper, the small compact weapon unfolding his hands as the weapon system linked up with his suit's targeting screen. "Alenko, draw him out," he ordered, as the marine leaped from his position whilst reinforcing his kinetic barriers with biotic barrier just as shot went out revealing the sniper position from muzzle flash before ducking back behind a large tree.

'I got him now,' he smirked with deadly intent as he looked down the scope of his sniper, just waiting for their attacker to build up the courage peep out of cover again, as the crosshairs of his scope lined up on the position he excepted the sniper's head to appear, his breathing naturally slowing as he took controlled breaths, intentionally trying slow his heart rate, before suddenly firing at flash of movement, as he watched a humanoid shape body drop to the ground. Seeing no one trying to move the body, he looked down at Alenko indicating for the solider to move up, whilst he covered him with his sniper rifle, however he suddenly saw another flash of light on metal, catching on his scope, giving way the target position he smoothly pulled the trigger as the crosshair centred on the blue helmet of his foe, before dropping the second target with single shot through plastic of the combat helmet, as broken shards of plastic mixed with blue blood.

"Nice shot commander," Alenko declared, panting heavily, from behind the same tree the first sniper had hidden behind. "Clear commander!" as he shouldered the sniper rifle, and swapping back to his avenger assault rifle.

He could of end the engagement much quicker if he had simply use his biotic abilities to close the distance with a biotic charge, but he wanted to save his energy until later, since he sensed this was just the beginning of the fight. Moving out of cover, before kneeling down besides the fallen solider and receiving Jenkins bloody dog tags, he already knew the critical mistake Jenkins had made that had cost him his life. The young marine had hesitated, taking far too long to move giving the sniper time to line up a killing shot, before he saw a second fatal mistake. Looking up in direction of Alenko "Jenkins forgot to maintain his kinetic barriers generator properly, that's how sniper passed his kinetic barriers so easily," as the sentinel shock his head in disapproval at the rocky mistake as he moved up path besides him, before leap frogging into next position.

"Searchsearch them and find out who we're fighting," He ordered as he looked down the pass, watching for any hostiles.

"Baterians!" Alenko spat with anger, as he looked back over his shoulder recognising the four-eye species he hated with passion as his remaining squad mate removed the second dead combatants helmet to reveal a Turian with small hole between his eyes.

"Mercenary group," he concluded quickly, before looking back at the body. "Any unique identifying markings or clues on them that we can use to identify them?"

"Negative commander," the tested marine stated, "What should we do about Jenkins body?" As he turned to attention back towards the path.

"Leave it," he said firmly, already moving out of cover and up the valley toward the distance dig site, noticing smoke in air. "Come on we got to moved," he encouraged, knowing the pair of snipers had slowed them down long enough already, as the two alliance marines rapidly moved through the area, sweeping it for any hostiles or traps, as the distance on the navigation marker slowly, but steadily decreased, as they saw the first supply grates and destroyed digging equipment.

Then he heard it, the characteristic trade mark sound of alliance assault rifle firing in rapid burst, as his motion senor picked up movement and the friendly foe tag changing it to yellow on his heads up display indicating a possible friendly.

He quickly looked over to Alenko who nodded his head in understanding as the pair of them moved behind cover, as they picked out their own fields of fire to over their primitive kill zone, Looking down his AR scope as the yellow dote rapidly moved towards them, as the gunfire got louder as the female alliance soldier in white armour rushed around the corner towards them, rounds bouncing offer her kinetic barriers, even as several explosion went off behind her.

Wasting no time he opened fire at the first hostile that came around the corner, providing the marine with cover fire as his shots ripped through mercenary's kinetic barriers, and successfully piecing the protective armour beneath, as the female marine took cover next to him, before quickly opening fire with her own avenger assault rifle, as Alenko added his own fire to the mix, whilst hacking the enemy combat systems as intense fire fight erupted between two sides.

Fortunately for them, they had the high ground and better fire positions as he tossed a frag grenade into the mix, before firing at pair of feeing attacker in their exposed backs as the grenade went off, effectively killing the pair.

"Alenko, pull them out of cover," he shouted over to the other biotic as he fire again into the unknown Mercenaries advancing on them as another attacker was pulled out of cover as dark energy engulfed him, before the alliance marine next to him put the Merc down with burst of fire. The fire fight lasted another five minutes as they slowly wore the mercs down with their combine power, before the mercenaries started to withdraw back towards the dig site.

Swapping in favour to his shotgun, "Advance marines!" he shouted out over the sounds of battle, as he moved out of his position and fired on retreating hostiles, even as he started to gather dark biotic energy around him, "Don't give them time to reground!" as he unleashed his destructive biotic charge, flashing across the short distance and smashing forcefully into a stun mercenary, before firing point blank range with his shotgun, killing with single brutal shot to his adversary's gut, before firing again into the confused panicking enemy ranks as they realized he was vanguard class biotic, his shotgun barking viciously as he killed three more, in quick ruthless succession. Even as his squad mates moved up in support, adding to the devastating barrage of fire as he unleashed another biotic charged, as he 'jumped' across the battle field once again, as he suddenly franked the enemy by appearing abruptly in their path of retreat.

A cold smile appeared on his features, as he fired again point blank range with his shotgun into man's helmet, his shotgun so close the kinetic barriers were useless as the mercenary head exposed under the force of the shot, sending bone and brain matter flying.

This was how he liked to fight, shock and awe, not giving the enemy time to think, to act as he jumped around them like a circling predator, as two more mercenaries dropped dead from the marines combined assault, as some stray shots landed on his barriers as the panicking enemy started to recover their wits, as harsh realization dawned on the hired guns that they were trapped between the two small but deadly alliance forces, without any effective cover, as his shotgun barked again, claiming another life in this small massacre.

A mercenary moved to surrender, as the merc throw his gun to the floor but he didn't give him a chance as his shotgun charmed another life before suddenly overheating in his hands, as the inbuilt safe guards activated causing his shotgun seized up and jam as he saw out of corner of his eye the reason why. Discarding his shotgun as he instinctively jumped next to the mercenary engineer responsible for hacking his gun and quickly snapped the batarian hackers neck with brutal twisted of his armoured hands, even as he grabbed another shotgun off the dead mercenary's backside, before firing again at closest target.

**Normandy CIC**

"Status reported," Captain Anderson barked whilst looking around the CIC, his handpicked crew working flawlessly at their stations, their hands dancing across the controls panels, as he gave a satisfied nod. Turning his attention back to the main view screen, he carefully watched the old Alliance dreadnought hover above Eden prime, keeping prefect position above the planet side colony.

"Hostile dreadnought still holding position above Eden Prime, sir," Navigations officer Pressy reported quickly, and efficiently. "However radio traffic groundside has increased captain, it seems their encountering some type of resistance on the planet," as a he noticed the smirked on Pressy's features.

Feeling a surge of hope that his second in commander was still alive, still fighting on the planet surface. "Any word from the ground team, any word from Shepard?" he asked the coms officer.

"Negative sir, the enemy is still jamming communications from the planet, all we can tell is their meeting resistance," the coms officer replied from her work station.

Moving back up to his original position on bridge, so he was standing behind Normandy's pilot, Joker. Joker like his nickname suggested was a goof ball, a joker, but he was best dam pilot in the fleet despite this. "Move us into position behind that dreadnought Joker, I want the Normandy to be in position to fire on their engines at moments noticed," he ordered firmly before looking over at the weapons officer, who was one of the newest members of the crew. "Ensign Smith, I want everything you can mutter to hit their engines, we can't risk them escaping with the beacon."

"Sir, if we fire our position will be exposed, we can't go against that dreadnought in head to head battle sir, it's just too powerful!" the young naval officer protested.

"I aware of that, _Ensign_," he snapped back at the man, as Normandy's combat systems picked up several ground assault gunships launched from the dreadnought's lower hanger bay, escorting a pair of heavy armoured shuttles to the planet surface.

"Dam," Joker stated, summing up his own feelings at the display of fire power. "Should we try to warn the commander?" the pilot asked.

"Negative Joker, we can't risk exposing our position, nor do we know for certain that our message will even reach the commander. We will just have to trust that John can handle himself," he said firmly, as he watched the gunships speeding towards the surface. "He's been in touchier spots."

**Mass Effect**

Walking silently up to one of still moving mercenary soldiers, who appeared to be human based on the armour configuration, and was promptly attempting to surrender as he smoothly swapped to his pistol and fired a three round burst ruthlessly executing the injured enemy combatant.

"Report!" he barked, as he holstered his weapon, his eyes scanning the battlefield.

"32 enemy KIA commander, not counting the first two we encaged." Alenko reported, as he stepped up to him.

Turning to examine the unknown alliance marine, who was looking back at him in a state of shock, "Name and rank soldier," he barked, causing the solider to give him a crisp salute on reflexes.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 2 – 12 sir!" she barked back, her military training kicking in, as Alenko started searching the bodies.

"Where's the rest your squad?" he asked, wanting to try to link up and coordinate with remaining forces planet side.

"Dead sir," she offered. "We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit, we tried to pull back to dig site but the position was already over run. Realizing that, and being unable to reach the command post on the coms, I and my remaining squad went to activate the emergency distress beacon at edge of town, and fortunately ran into other saviours having the same idea. However a group of mercenary soldiers was already there attempting to destroy it. We managed to take the position and repair the transmitter, and hold it long enough send off a distress call, however enemy gunships quickly turned. I've been fighting for my life every since, then I saw ship, and headed this way and ran into you, you know the rest," she explained quickly. "I'm only one left sir."

Nodding his head in understanding, whilst deciding to keep the solider with them so she wouldn't break down soon has the shock worn off of losing her entire squad, and saviour guilt kicked in. "Your coming with us Williams, _you_ can led us to the dig site," he ordered. "Check your gear; and search the dead for any supplies you need."

"Yes sir," Williams barked, before she turned around on the spot. 'Nice ass' he noted through the armour, as he tried to get hold Nihlus, but found the communication were jammed somehow.

'Just great' he mentally groaned before picking up some extra grenades, prior to spotting a javelin missile launcher, along with several missiles bring a rare smile to his face at finding a heavy weapon, whilst wondering why it was deployed against them, before strapping the launcher over his armoured shoulder.

"Found anything?" he asked the pair.

"Just the usual, nothing special," Alenko offered.

"Same," Williams declared, as she moved to join them.

"Time to move then people," he declared, as he swapped back to his assault rifle, before looking at newest addition to his squad. "Williams take point," putting Eden Prime's resident soldier upfront to guide them to the dig site.

Following behind Williams whilst Alenko took the rear guard position 'Is she any relation to General Williams? The man who surrendered to the Turians during First Contact War?' he pondered, before deciding it could wait until they were back abroad the Normandy as they run past several burning white prefabricated cabins before suddenly stopping.

Noticing what had caught William's attention, he saw several bodies lined up in role, in a mixture of civilian and military clothing along with women in blood stained white lab coat pressed up again side of cabin, with spatter marks along the side of the cabin, along with a small hole. Quickly counting the number of bullet holes, and comparing to number of bodies, "Executed," he noted grimly, as he noticed their bounded hands. Looking at the grim faces of his squad mates, he saw anger in their eyes, as Williams stared down at the dead marine. "Let's keep moving people, there is nothing we can do here," he voiced, as he took deliberately pointed, forcing the two marines to moved otherwise they be left behind. Finally arriving at the burning dig site, his eyes immediately jumped to the large pile of bodies dumped carelessly to one side, as his trained eyes picked out the bodies of fallen marines, and buttered scientist alike, as blood gathered beneath the pile.

Turning his attention back to dig site, the stone pillars were marked with signs of weapons fire and scorched marks from high explosives, with over turned burning machines shattered around the site.

"Williams, any idea where the beacon is?" he asked, wondering if the intel was wrong, or if the mercenaries had already extracted the beacon.

"I don't know sir," she replied, whilst doing her best to ignore the pile of dead bodies.

"Alenko, check the research cabins, look for anything on the beacon, where they might have moved it," sending the sentinel off to dig through the databases, as he once again looked around at the ruins, before hearing the familiar sound of gunships rapidly approaching.

Remembering William's earlier words, "Take cover!" he roared even as he dived behind a stone pillar just as missiles were fire into the dig site, followed by the gattling guns suddenly opening fire in deathly barrage, as explosions went off around him, as two gunship swooped over head.

"Williams, you ok?" he asked, looking around for the soldier that had been standing next to him moments earlier, as his kinetic barriers steadily recharged.

"Fine sir, maybe a broken rib," she replied as another series of rockets were fired into dig site, hitting the weaken stone pillar he was hiding behind causing him to roll away as dust and rumble was thrown into air, before the pillar suddenly came crushing down, covering the dig site in veil of dust.

"You alive Alenko?" he asked, as he pulled the salvaged heavy weapon off his shoulder and activating the missile launcher, as he heard the gunships coming around for another attack run.

"There deploying troops!" Alenko warmed, as he looked out cover to see two gunship hovering, as armour troops abseiled down on ropes to join the battle, before being force duck back into cover again as the gunship automatic chain guns opened fired at him pinning him down begin cover.

Realizing that there was no way he could take the shot, he looked over to newest member of team, his discussion already made, "Williams take the shot, Alenko, see you can hack the gunship kinetic barriers or weapons," he declared, throwing the missile launcher across to the marine hiding behind some heavy lifting equipment. Immediately swapping back to his assault rifle, he fired a quick burst into the enemy ranks, to keep the mercenaries attention firmly fixed on him, giving Williams critical time to get a shot. Just as first gunship was about to open fire, a puff of smoke erupted from launcher as the missile took flight, the small missile darting through the smoke filled air, followed swiftly by loud bang as missile hit its target. Looking out cover to see the first gunship had been turned into burning wreckage, as super heated metal fragments came raining down upon the advancing enemy below, like massive shot gun blast as he ducked back into cover. "Good shot Williams. Now take down the second one," before firing on the disorganised, shocked troops, as he ruthless cut down two more.

"Sir! The beacon was transported to the spaceport, less than hour ago," Alenko hastily reported, gunfire coming over the radio.

As another missile hastily took to the sky, the gunship taking evasive action as the missile chipped the gunship wing, triggering the remaining missiles, causing it to quickly spin out of control, and unfortunately fall straight towards him, as the pilot fought to keep control of the craft.

Leaping out of cover, as rounds bounced off his protective barriers before he was thrown in air as the gunship exploded behind him, slamming into side of broken stone pillar, like a child throwing it's toy.

Looking up at the sky, as his ears ringed, as he tried to get control of his overwhelmed senses as he pushed the pain to one aside.

His right hand side aching as he forced himself to his feet, as realized that he no longer had his assault fire with, causing him to grab his fallen sniper rifle and moved into cover behind small grate. 'I need a pay rise.'

Looking down his high powered scope before firing at the first exposed target, the high power round tearing through the enemy's protective barriers, before piecing his targets' armoured combat suit, dropping the target to the ground, before quickly firing again at another target that tried to help the fallen combatant he just shot, as blood erupted from mercenary's helmet. The fire fight last another couple minutes before the desperate enemy combatants started withdrawing along the path back to the spaceport, with the three of them following behind them, continuing to encaged the enemy every step of their retreated until the last one fell.

"Good job people!" he announced as his side protested in pain. "Everyone alright?" as he dosed himself with some pain meds.

"Fine, just bit winded," Alenko voiced.

"Just some bruises here," William expressed.

"Good, let's get moving," as he forced himself forward just as coms came back online. "Shepard, are you still alive?" Nilius asked easily.

"Fine, but encountering heavy resistance mercenary's forces," he replied evenly, stopping on path. "The beacon was transported to the spaceport just over an hour ago, do you copy?" updating the alone Turian on the primary objective status.

"Acknowledged commander, on route to space port," the Turian replied, before cutting the coms.

"Who's that?" Williams asked.

"Council Spectre sent to help oversee the transportation of the beacon," Shepard countered.

"Can he be trusted?" Williams pressed.

"He can be trusted to do his job," he answered, not truly knowing where the Turian loyalties lay, as the pain meds started to kick in. "Come on, we need to get moving," ending the uncomfortable discussion. Heading off again in direction of the distinct spaceport, after several minutes they encounter the first rural structures that looked like small houses, just outside the limits of the spaceport, as something moved in corner of his eye.

"Sir, I saw movement in that window," Williams declared as he shifted, taking point.

"Alliance Marines!" Shepard declared, "Show yourself!"

Advancing on the structure, his trained eyes picking up on movement in the windows, gesturing with flick of his head for Williams to cover the rear as Alenko advance to door control panel, his Omi Tool activating as the sentinel started hacking the door controls.

"Don't shot, we're unarmed," a scared male voice declared as the door opened his hands above his head dress in civilian clothing, causing Alenko to back away from the door as another figure appeared behind him, her own hands high above her head, as he noticed the military grade pistols on their hips as he allowed himself to relaxed, before lowering his weapon.

"Commander Shepard, Alliance military," he declared formally, stepping forward. "Can either of you tell me what happened here?"

The man spoke up first, "We were at the market when the attack hit, shuttles suddenly came rushing down out of the sky followed by gunships. At first we thought it was Alliance running some type of combat drill, but suddenly they opened fire on us," the male expressed, fear lacing his voice. "However none of the colony's defence systems activated, and the coms suddenly shut gun, it was like all the systems went dark at once, before the power sudden cut out as well."

"We just ran, hoping to get out of settlement, as the first troops were deployed," the lady added as Williams gave them an angry look, which made it clear what she thought of the pair of them

"Inside man," he voiced grimly, whilst looking over at his team who nodded in agreement to his assessment before turning his attention back to the civilians. "Is there anything else you can tell me? Have you seen the beacon?"

"Yea, that was transported through here less than hour an hour ago, in the direction of the spaceport" male voiced, "I think the mercenary's are Blue Suns."

"The Mercenary group?" he asked, trying to remember more about the group.

"Yea," the male voiced with a sharp nod before looking over at his friend, before looking back at him. "I recognised one of them. I did some work with them couple years ago out of Omega, before coming here to settle down. I got fed up of dodging bullets, and ended up meeting Mary-Jane here."

Deciding to push on with his mission, now he had new Intel "You two stay, and keep out of trouble," he said sternly, giving them serious look.

"Cole," the women said nervously, addressing the male as he was just about to walk away, "We should tell them about _the_ stuff."

"Jane stay quiet," Cole snapped quickly, looking over at Jane in panic.

"What stuff," he asked sharply, turning around, whilst giving Cole a warning look who sighed, cracking up under his stern glaze.

"A couple guys out of the space port were running a small smuggling operation, small arms, some drugs," Cole explained quickly. "Nothing serious."

'Just great more paper work,' he noted as he looked at the pair, trying to decide what to do with them. "Like the pair of military grade pistols you have on your hips?" he asked innocently adding pressure to the pair to come clean.

"Yea," Jane confirmed, Cole giving her sharp look. "Jesus Jane, are you trying to get us thrown in prison?" Cole spat, as the pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place.

"That was how you knew they were Blue Suns, you were smuggler, a weapons dealer," he stated, stepping into the male personal space. "And still are, why else would you have new military gear."

"What I just found this, took it from body," the man spat, nervously, as his instincts screamed liar.

"Don't lie to me!" he threatened, stepping forward closing the distance between them, as the two civilians backed up against the wall. "Tell me everything now!"

"Alright, the storage units out back were drop point off, we allowed the guys at spaceport to use our sheds for small housing fee," Code blurted out in a panic, his hands gesturing to sheds.

"Alenko, Williams, search them for anything we can use!" he barked, sending the two marines to search for much need supplies before turning his attention back to two scared smugglers.

"Tell me everything now!"

**Normandy **

"Shepard do you read me?" Captain Anderson asked, hoping that the marine was still alive on the planet surface after seeing the gunships deployed over half hour earlier.

"Acknowledged, but encountering stiff resistance," as burst of gun fire came over the radio connection. "The enemy is withdrawing along the tam line with the beacon in their procession," as another burst of intense gunfire filled the CIC, as all the operational officers eagerly listen in. "Jenkins is dead sir, a sniper got him," as more gunfire, followed by distinctive barked of shotgun being fired came over the radio, as his heart plummeted at the news of lose of young soldier.

"Acknowledged," he said grimy, as news spread through the ranks at the lost of one of their crew members. "Status?"

"Currently fighting our way through spaceport security centre," as loud bang went off in back ground. "Nilius is franking them, trying to cut them off from their shuttles. It's an inside job sir; they had inside help to bypass the colony's defences. I believe they are Blue Sons sir," the N7 explained as another explosion followed. "Williams cover me," as another burst of gunfire followed. 'Who is Williams?' He asked himself, as he continued to listen in to the intense fire fight.

"Fuck! Their using civilians as shields," Shepard exclaimed over the radio.

"Remember the beacon is _your_ top priority," Anderson stressed, hoping to cover Shepard ass from a military tribune if civilians were accidentally killed in crossfire.

"Understood, Sir," Shepard replied. "I want headshots only people! Alenko, pull them out of cover!" before the com filled with static.

"What happen?" he barked to nearest communications officer who jumped back into action. "Enemy is jamming communications again sir."

"Sir, the dreadnought is powering up its weapons," Joker exclaimed in panic, "Somehow they know were here!"

"Open fire, all weapons," He barked, as missile tubes suddenly opened fire follow by main cannon, causing the Normandy to shake under the recoil, as the warship leaped into action, taking on warship 5 times her size and weight.

**Eden Prime – Spaceport Security Centre.**

"Fuck we lost coms again," Shepard bark over the radio, as he ducked back into cover behind a wall, before opening fire again down the corridor at expose mercenary as they pushed to the CIC (combat control centre), the fighting intensifying as the mercs drew more desperate under their advance. Swapping back to his sniper rifle, he gathered dark biotic energy in his body, before unleashing a powerful biotic stasis field at his chosen target, forcefully holding the mercenary in position as he looked down the scope of his sniper rifle, before smoothly pulling the trigger, causing his target's head exploded from high speed sniper round, covering the terrified human hostage with blood, bone and brain matter, before Alenko pulled the stunned hostage out of way with a biotic pull, pulling the horrified hostage to safety of their own lines.

"Stay down," Alenko stated, moving the hostage to one side, before firing with his rifle.

"Push people," he shouted as he fired another round from his sniper, achieving another head shot.

**Mass Effect**

'Dam, he's good," she noted with sense of awe as the N7 continued to killed with devastating accuracy and efficiently only achieved from years of drilling and combat experience, before fire again. Advancing down the corridor after the retreating mercenaries as a high power shot went flying over her shoulder plate downing her chosen target, causing her to instinctively pressed her up against the wall. "Fuck, warn me next time you do that!" she shouted, just as another round flew past her, claiming another mercenary. Before Alenko was opposite her, unleashing a burst with his own assault rifle, as grenade bounced at their feet, fear gripping her.

"Move!" she cried, diving backwards out of the blast zone, as the Alenko raised a hasty erected a biotic barrier to protect them just before the explosive wave of energy resister on her armour, knocking her forcefully to the ground, sending her head spinning.

"Get up Williams," a strong male voice barked. "That's a fucking order!"

"Yes sir," she replied automatically from years of drilling, trying to get back to her feet.

**Mass Effect**

Looking down at the stunned marine he was just starting to like before firing again with his sniper, dropping another target what was stupid enough to expose himself, before pulling the trigger again at the next target as he pushed forward down the corridors, stepping over the dead bodies as he went, before moving into spaceport security office with the injured Alenko in tow, just to encounter trio of mercenaries holding weapons to group of hostages in front of them.

"Drop your weapons! Or we kill the hostages human," the Batarian mercenary spat, pressing his gun forcefully against mans neck, whilst his companions copied their leader's actions, noticing one was Turian, the other was human.

Intentionally smiling, knowing that it would unnerve them, but discarded his sniper rifle any as plan quickly formed in his mind. "I got orders, civilians are secondary concern, but I'll offer you a chance to surrender," he informed even as he started to gather biotic energy, even as his smile turned cruel, whilst he saw William's yellow dot move up behind him.

"I'm not fucking kidding human!" the four-eyed alien snarled, his four eyes blinking, as the female hostage started to cry, tear flowing down her red cheeks.

"Neither am I, do you know how many Batarians I've killed?" he asked confidently, as his muscle tensed, as he felt his biotic amp starting to heat up as he held the dark energy inside him. "You either surrender or die your choice."

"I don't want to die!" the human mercenary exclaimed, pushing the hostage away from him, causing much need distraction as he unleashed the biotic energy gather within as two powerful biotic stasis fields engulfed the two remaining mercenaries and their hostages in a bubble of energy, forcefully holding them in place, to point not even their trigger fingers could moved.

Stepping forward, as he lazily reached for his pistol on his lip, he saw the fear spread in the Batarians eyes, as he lifted his pistol before firing two quick shots, executing the hostage takers, their blood painting the wall behind them Releasing the biotic stasis fields the two dead hostage bodies dropped to ground, as their hostage quickly feeing to join the other, hiding behind Alenko.

Turning his attention to remaining hostage taker, "Don't shot I surrender!" the human mercenary shouted again, his hands high in the air, as the hostages started to cried, the other free hostages moving to comfort one another.

"Williams, take care of the hostages. Alenko, tie him up police him for any hidden weapons," he ordered as the two alliance marines leaped to complete their individual assigned tasks.

"He's clean sir," Alenko declared, stepping away from the hired gun.

"Good. Alenko try to override the tam lock down, and activate any intact defences," he instructed, before turning his attention back to the scared prisoner who trying to shuffle away from him.

Stepping closer, he kneel down to face the man, his armoured hand cupping the man's chin, forcing him to meet his eyes. The mercenary looked barely older to be a teen, as he examined the man patch work armour. "Now me and you are going to have a little chat, if you tell me what I want to know, you'll live, you understand?" he asked coldly, wanting to confirm his earlier information, as well gather more critical Intel.

"Yes," the human mercenary replied.

"Good, let's start with who you work for," he asked, as Williams silently watched him from across the room.

**End of Chapter**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bioware or Mass Effect**

**Rate M**

**Mass Effect: Dark Webs**

**Chapter 2**

**Normandy CIC**

The space battle had been going well for them so far, with the Normandy crew scoring several good hits on the enemy dreadnought whilst the enemy dreadnought had failed to score a single hit on them thanks to their state of the art stealth systems. Unfortunately for them due the massive warship sheer size, the dreadnought's powerful protective barriers were proving to be highly effective at countering Normandy's attacks. It short, their guns weren't powerful enough to pierce the dreadnought rigid defences. Then again, the Normandy was _never_ designed to take on a dreadnought in first place, but the rest of the Normandy's systems were proving to be highly effective.

"Captain, the cruiser Yorktown has just emerged from the relay," Pressy announced.

"Good," Anderson said with crisp nod, sweat pouring down his chin. "Joker back us off, we will attack again when the Yorktown is in position to support us."

"Aye aye Captain," Joker replied, the pilot's hands dancing across the controls, as the Normandy disengaged from combat.

"Incoming message from the Yorktown," the coms officer announced.

"Patch them through," he answered, moving up to nearest monitor.

"Captain Anderson, always finding trouble I see," Captain Fox announced with smile, "Reminds me of our time together at the academy, never a boring day with you around," she joked with warm welcoming smile.

"Good to see you again Rachael, your late to dance as usual," he countered with a smile of his own.

"What are we up against?" Yorktown's captain asked, her expression turning serious as the banter ended.

"Blue Sun Mercenaries, but god knows how they got an old alliance dreadnought," he announced, whilst wondering just how powerful the mercenary organization was if they could afford to buy a decommission dreadnought and refit for combat.

"That is disturbing," Captain Fox admitted with minor frown, "What is the state planet side?"

"I got a small strike team on the planet surface, but they are encountering stiff resistance and our communications are being jammed," he reported to his counterpart. "Would you mind leaning them a hand? I'll own you a drink when were done?"

"I'll have my people suit up," she agreed. "We'll be in firing range in 5 minutes."

"Confirmed," he agreed before the screen went blank.

Turning to the CIC, "You all heard the lady, Normandy's got herself a dance partner, so suit up, put on your dresses and heels, the second dance is going to start in five minutes," he boomed to the command grew, before turning to Joker. "I want us in position to cover their shuttles, Shepard just about to get some reinforcements."

"Aye aye Captain," Joker replied, as he felt the Normandy shift beneath him.

**Mass Effect**

**Eden Prime**

"Can't this thing move faster," he declared, his impatience getting the better of him as they rode the tramline to the other side of the spaceport, following in the footsteps of the Blue Suns, his mind replaying his short interrogation of the captive human mercenary. The captured mercenary had been left under the supervision of the freed hostages, until someone from alliance could retrieve him.

"It's faster than walking sir," Williams stated, trying to appease him, as he paced backwards and forwards.

"Its probably the health and safety inspectors fault," Alenko suggested, bringing a grin to his face at the joke, as the tram continued to move at snail pace along the rails.

"Sir! Reinforcement!" Williams shouted, pointing to the sky, as several small ships dropped through the upper atmosphere towards the settlement.

"Just great!" he declared in annoyance, whilst privately wondering just how many more mercenaries he had to kill before the dreadnought above them ran out of men, even as his hands automatically checked his weapons, his eyes tracked the dozen shuttles.

"Sir! It's the Alliance!" Alenko cheered.

"That makes a change," he noted with dry amusement as he watched the shuttles descend towards the outskirts of the settlement. "But that doesn't help us, their landing on the other side of the settlement, near the main civilian population centre."

Realizing that it was still up to him and his squad as the tram train steadily neared the other terminal, whilst seeing men move into position to greet them. "Heads up people we got trouble," he announced as he zoomed in with his sniper rifle, before pulling the trigger as a body appear in his crosshairs, causing the enemy to duck into cover as he unleashed rounds down range in quick succession, forcing the enemy ahead of them to stayed pinned, with Williams swapping to her own sniper rifle to add her own fire to men in the windows.

The fire fight in the terminal had been going for just over five intense brutal minutes as they fought their way across the terminal floor, he had long ago discarded his sniper in favour for his shotgun, whilst he continue to keep ducking in and out of cover. As each side did their best to end of the other, as rounds flew over their heads, and grenades were tossed back and forth from both sides, with biotic explosions added to mix, as Alenko did his best to disable the enemy barriers and weapons with his moderate hacking skills.

However just as he thought the fight was ending, the ground began to shake as a heavy assault mech entered the fray, the humanoid killing machine stalked into the lobby, as it's armour arm knocked aside a drinks machine with ease, as it crushed a bench beneath it weight, as its main cannon powered up to fire.

To make matter worst, another squad of blue suns mercenaries flooded into the room, launching their own counter attack. "Williams, put a missile into that thing," he shouted across to the Alliance marine, whilst once again grateful for picking up the heavy weapon earlier that day. Ducking out of cover again to fire, hoping to draw fire away from his team mate so Williams could take the all important shot, as first round hit his kinetic barrier. Throwing himself back to cover as assault mech main cannon fired, destroying the wall behind, as debris rained down upon him.

"Fuck! It's jam!" Williams shouted in panic, as he rolled across the terminal floor to new firing position, before returning fire.

"Well, un-jam it then!" he shouted back as rounds flew over his head, before opening fire with his shotgun again, just as a random grenade rolled into his position, which he quickly toss back with only a second to spare as the grenade exposed in mid air.

"It's not working!" she shouted in a panic, over the sounds of gun fire.

"Hit the god dam thing then!" he shouted back, before tossing his own grenades into mix, stalling the mercenary advance, before dispatching the down mercenaries with two quick shots of his shotgun. Seeing the heavy mech's main cannon pointing directly at him, time seemed to slow as he intuitively gather up his biotic energy and 'jumped' across to the other side of the room directly into pair of mercenaries, as the main cannon fire at his former position. He quickly ended the pair of stunned blue suns with point blank shots with his shotgun, as their body armour failed, as the Mech slowly turned to face him again, as the mercenaries started to realize their own position had been franked. He jumped again across the battlefield, behind unfortunate mercenary that he dispatch with blast of his shotgun, before 'jumping' again before his comrades could retaliated.

Slamming into a mercenary, the force of the direct biotic impact knocking the mercenary to the ground, as he slammed the but of his gun into mercenary next to him, as the heavy mech fire at him again.

Jumping again just as the mech shot impacted his former position, killing its own mercenary allies, as he continued to jumped around the mercenaries with increasing speed, like a great circling beast, picking them off one by one, as fear rapidly spread amongst the mercenary ranks, never giving them a chance to get shot at him, as Alenko unleash his own biotic attacks on the confused hired guns. Ignoring the fact that the biotic amp at base of his neck was beginning to burn his skin, as his limps started to tire and ache in protest from the stain he was putting on his body, but he had to keep going, to keep the enemy off balance, buying his squad time.

"I got it," Williams cried.

"Then blow up the mother fucker already!" he shouted back as he rolled to one side, next to hostile merc, batting aside the merc's gun as he pulled out his combat knife from his armoured boot, and driving it into hostile leg, right between the protective armoured plates, before loud bang filled the room, whilst he drive the combat knife through his downed opponent visor, as his suit's own barriers registering hits.

"It's down," Williams declared.

"About fucking time," he shouted back as he moved into cover, his ribs aching despite the pain meds he had taken earlier as the blue suns mercenaries started pulling back out of the terminal in disorganised retreat.

"They're breaking!" Williams declared, as he swapped back to his assault rifle before opening fire again with his avenger into the broken ranks, as bodies started dropping like flies under the three marines combined rifle fire, as grenades were tossed into the enemy midst, adding to the chaos of battle.

"Push forward," he declared as rounds zoomed over his head, only slowing his ruthless advance across the terminal floor to dispatch injured hostiles, who been left behind by their feeling comrades, rather than risk the mercenaries shooting him in the back later. Driving the blue suns back through the giant terminal doors into the loading area, the giant steel transport containers broken open and looted for their treasures by the mercenaries, as he noticed the dead dock workers shattered around the bay. However despite the carnage he could see the objective again in near distance, less than quarter a mile away being carried by a heavy mover, normally used to move crates around the bay.

Knowing time was off the essence, he smoothly switched back to his sniper rifle as he zoomed in on the driver cabin of the civilian heavy transporter mech. The sniper scope crosshairs lining up over the rear window of the driver's cabin, before firing trio of three high power shots into the cabin, as the mech sudden shuddered to halt as his heat sink fared, announcing the weapon need to cool down. Swapping back to his assault rifle instead of waiting for it to cool down, he fire again into the mix of feeing bodies, before ducking behind a steel container, before looking over at his squad mates positions, with Williams taking temporary shelter in door way whilst Alenko was taking cover behind his own crate.

Opening firing once again, as he dropped another hostile, at the same time as Alenko rushed forward into new firing position whilst unleashing a biotic warp of his own.

"Gunship," Alenko declared as the familiar hum of engines hanged in the air.

"You know what to do Williams!" he barked, trusting the female marine to do her job as he opened fire at another enemy keeping him pinned down, as the gunship rapidly approached them, before an explosion filled the air, announcing the destruction of the gunship. "Good shot," he noted while moving forward into new firing position behind a loading trunk, gradually getting closer to the stationary beacon all the time, which was steadily pulsing away in the distance.

"Shepard status report?" Anderson asked through the static of the radios.

"Almost have control of the beacon," he replied, before firing again.

"Good, the enemy dreadnought is taking a pounding, their breaking orbit," the Normandy's commanding officer reported. "Reinforcements are on route to your position. Just hold on."

"Acknowledged, any word on Nihlus?" he asked as his team advanced.

"Negative commander," the captain replied before adding. "I'm sure he can take care of himself," as the first shuttle of many shuttles took off into the air as the mercenary gang started to leave the planet. "Keep up the pressure commander."

"Will do sir!" he replied with smile as he fire again into blue sun ranks as the enemies numbers started to lessen as more and more shuttles started to take to air, withdrawing from battle. Less than ten minutes later the prothean beacon was secured, as the three tired alliance marines inspected the ancient alien technology for any sighs of damage, but lucky finding none.

"Is it meant to be glowing like that Williams?" he asked, as they waited for additional reinforcements to arrive, as the beacon pulsed, reminding him of ticking time bomb out of the movies.

"It wasn't doing that at dig site," the marine confirmed. "Maybe the scientists activated by mistake?"

He looked quickly back over his shoulder at glowing prothean beacon, pulsing with eerily green energy before offering his own opinion. "Perhaps, or the blue suns did by accident whilst moving it," as he moved further away from the beacon whilst activating his suits coms trying to report in to Normandy in high in orbit, but failing to get an connection due to interference.

With an irritated sigh he turned his attention back to the ancient beacon, as he silently listened into his made shift squad. "A working prothean technology! Unbelievable!" Alenko exclaimed in awe as the beacon continued to throb away like a beating heart, the haunting green light grabbing his attention, whilst causing him to step back out of reflex, prior to trying to reach the Normandy again in orbit, but this time successfully getting through.

"The package is secure Normandy, waiting pick up, over," he declared with sense of pride.

"Well done Shepard, good job!" Anderson declared as he caught sudden moving out corner of his eye, the beacon started pulsing rapidly, as it unleashed green wave of energy pulling, which grabbed Williams and pull her slowly towards it.

Leaping immediately into action and covering the short distance in matter of seconds, his arms wrapping forcefully around her and throwing her out of way. The beacon suddenly pulsed again, grapping a hold of him and lifting him into the air. "Shepard!" he heard William cry, as he was pulled closer and closer towards the beacon, before a wave of images hit him in quick succession. "Stay back it too dangerous," Alenko declared, as the exotic images flooded his mind, of relays, of the citadel, of machines, of the Protheans, as his head began to ach and burn, the biotic amp on his neck burning into his flesh, as the images came faster and faster, as the pain started to grow unbearable, as images of burning cities, of countless warships descending through the atmosphere, their hellish red weapons firing, levelling buildings with single powerful shot.

**Sovereign**

"Report, did the Blue Suns retrieve the prothean beacon?" Saren asked as soon as his second in command, and passing lover entered his stateroom, feeling Sovereign itself stir with interest at the prospect of news as Matriarch Benezia prepared her answer.

"Unfortunately not, an Alliance warship called the Normandy was on route to the system to retrieve the beacon and arrived during the raid," as his anger began to stir. "It was commanded by Captain Anderson." Matriarch Benezia stated calmly, causing his anger to flare at the human's name, a man who he hate with passion, as Sovereign's own anger flared at the bad news. "They managed to save the colony, and the beacon. My agents on the citadel already have reported that systems alliance is aware of Blue Son involvement and are investigating, so are C-Sec, and STG" she added dryly.

Considering the news, "That_ is_ unfortunate," he said slowly, drawing out the words, whilst gaining control over of his raging emotions as he processed the bad news. Already he was making plans to retrieve the prothean beacon through using his own spectre status.

"That is the last time I use mercenaries and hired killers, I should have gone myself with the Geth," he spat as Sovereign pulsed in agreement, as he sent a accusing look at his second in command, who had originally suggested the idea of using middle men to retrieve the beacon for them, rather than risking exposing himself and Sovereign too soon to the slumbering galaxy.

"Indeed, you were correct," Matriarch Benezia voiced calmly. "However the situation is still salvageable, you can use your status as a council spectre to gain access to the beacon on the citadel. Or I can arrange for my own daughter to be part of the research team that studies the relic. I'm sure she could pass on any information recovered."

"True," he admitted, his clawed hand stroked his chin even as he leaned back into his throne like seat as Sovereign silently pulse in agreement to the new plan.

"However, there are reports suggesting that one of human marines, a John Shepard may have accidently used it," she voiced cautiously. "But this has yet to be confirmed."

It took him less than second to make his decision, "Have him killed immediately and make it look like an accident." Saren ordered as he rose from his seat, feeling the massive ancient warship change course beneath his feet. "I also want the Blue Suns leaders who took the job to be eliminated, anyone who can track it back to us," he declared, deciding to start tiring up loose ends.

Bowing her head, "It shell be done," Matriarch Benezia voiced in agreement, her features still unchanging, "What of the Geth? They grow restless."

Thinking of the collective machine race that followed him, "Inform them of the Blue Suns. They are to hit any of their strongholds in Terminus Systems, and any of their ships, eliminate them all," Saren expressed before smiling cruelly. "It will also sever to further distract the Council and the Alliance, if they are worried about the Geth involvement."

**Normandy**

Dam he hated paperwork, he mentally grumbled even as he tapped quick commands into data pad, before finally submitting far a more detailed after action report to the Alliance command, and indirectly the Citadel Council on the events of Eden Prime. He had submitted his first after action report during his stay in the Normandy's med-bay, highlighting key details that he felt the alliance command need to know immediately, whilst Dr Chakwas put him through a series of tests. But the first report naturally lacked the finer detail, so as soon as he was given the all clear and released from the medical wing; he set about working on a far more detail version. Unlike some officers he had known during his career, He didn't bother to sugar coat the report, choosing instead to be brutally honest with his assessment of the engagement. After all, generals and admirals wanted cold hard facts on combat, not watered down vague bullshit politicians wanted to hear, so they could blend and twist for public and the media to eat up. He also dutifully pointed out that Jenkins unfortunate death was primarily due to the young solider failing to maintain his own equipment properly, rather than the sniper ability. Yes it was harsh, the solider wouldn't die a hero and wouldn't he held up on some poster, but hopefully Jenkins death would sever as an example of what not to do. Naturally, a letter would be sent to Jenkins family claiming he died heroically in battle, rather than state the cold hard truth.

Reaching for his pain meds in his trouser pocket, he popped the cap off before swallowing some more pills, before soon feeling his headache disappear, replaced by dullness.

"Commander," the feminine voice of William rang in the air, causing him to look up from his work.

Truth be told, he was rather surprised to see Williams on broad, but then again Captain Anderson did have habit of picking up strays. "Williams," He noted quickly, taking in her stern look. "What can I do for you? I am guessing that this isn't a social call to check on how your X-O is doing?"

Watching with interest as she gathered up her courage, before finally speaking her mind, "Why were you on my backside the entire mission, what is _your _problem with me?" Williams suddenly demanded. Meeting her demanding angry eyes, he resisted the urge to make a crude sex joke about enjoying the view of her backside, already being able to guess that she was the type of marine that would report him for such remark.

He privately noted she was rather attractive individual now she was out of her protective combat armour, before carefully selecting his words. "My problem with you _was_ that you were an unknown element in a very important mission marine, stand at attention," he ordered causing her to snap to attention, as he stood up to confront her.

Walking around her, like a predator circling a chosen meal, whilst the rest of the crew in the mess hall watched the unfolding drama. Speaking again in a softer, more sympathetic tone, "I had no idea of your personal skills or your abilities beyond your title and rank. I had no idea how you like to fight, all I knew at the time was you were the last man alive from your original squad," causing her physically flinch as if struck, whilst he took the opening to discreetly examined her again, noticing her muscles were tight, firm, while his male mind wonder what she would feel like beneath his own body.

Realizing he was still holding his date pad, he carefully placed it back on the dinning table before looking back at the waiting marine. "The questions I'm asking myself are, did you break under pressure and ran for your life whilst leaving the rest of your squad mates to die? Were you hiding in some corner waiting to be saved rather than doing your duty and protect the colony? Are you a coward? Or are you a mercenary infiltrator who's taken the combat armour from a dead Alliance officer to infiltrate us? To shot us in the back? Are you the mole that took down the defence turrets around the colony? Are you even alliance?" he asked the silent, red face marine.

"Then take into account that I am on a important mission under heavy fire, unable to radio command, and I have already lost one of my men due to he didn't maintain his combat properly?" he stated, stepping towards her, as she instinctively took a step back out of reflexes. "So Williams... I think I have _the_ right to be riding your backside," he added dryly, challenging her to try and argue against his logical reasoning. "Until you have proven that you are competence officer, who_ has_ earned that uniform and rank, I'll keep hounding you, pushing you. You understand me

Gunnery Chief?"

"Yes sir," she snapped out of reflex.

"Good, dismissed," he instructed waving the marine off, as Williams turned around on the spot before marching away, giving him a chance to watched her firm ass sling side to side, wondering what taking her ass would feel like if he ever got the chance.

"Bit harsh on her weren't you?" Alenko asked, appearing suddenly by his side.

"Wasn't I the same with you when we first meet?" Shepard countered, before he returning to his seat to continue on with his reports.

"True," the sentinel admitted as he sat down in the empty sit opposite him. "How's the headache?"

"Annoying," he offered, but offering nothing more than that.

"Now _you _know how I feel," Alenko offered with a cheesy grin. "So do you think the captain will keep her?"

There was no need to say who 'her' was, but he took a moment anyways to properly considered the question before finally answering. "Probably, we're the closest thing she has left to unit now, and she will need stability in the upcoming days until she makes peace with that," which Alenko nodded to in agreement. "And with Jenkin's unfortunate death, we now have a free bed to house her, and an open slot on squad rota that needs filling," he explained.

"Makes sense," Alenko agreed after some thought.

Putting the data pad back down on the table, "Plus if she survives this it will only make her stronger, harder, and as the X-O of this ship, I'm meant to be hated, so let her hate me. The captain plays the role of good cop and father, Dr Chakwas plays the role of the stern, but caring mother, and I play the role of the bad cop that keeps everyone on their toes, and makes the captain look nice," he explained with smile to the other man. "Someday you'll have to play this role of the bad ass X-O, but someday she will thank me for it. By me drilling her so hard it will toughen her up, making her far harder to kill and far more likely to see old age," He added evenly, as he made a mental note to look up Williams service record.

"Just like the drill instructors at the academy do, they tear you down just so they can rebuild you better, stronger," Alenko realized.

"Indeed," he confirmed while his mind turn towards the Turian spectre, "Any word on Nilius?"

"Unfortunately yes, they found his dead body in the spaceport," the biotic replied dryly.

He didn't feel any emotional lost at news that Nilius was dead, they had only met couple days ago, and barely spoken to each other since the Turian boarded the Normandy, but he felt he should at least say something in tribute to the fallen warrior, "That is unfortunate, he seemed like reasonable guy, for a Turian," he offered back.

"Word has it that Nilius put your name forward to become a council spectre, is there any truth to this rumour?" Alenko whispered.

Smiling as he replied, "Yes, he did. He was originally placed on broad to assess me for the position. But I never got the chance to ask him what the pays was like..." he wondered aloud.

"The pay is shit Shepard," Anderson suddenly said from behind him, taking him by surprised as he looked over to his shoulder to see his Co. "They expected you to do it out of honour and prestige... You get paid less than marine does upon signing on."

"So why would I want the position then?" Shepard amused.

"Good question," Anderson offered with light heart grin, before the grin slowly disappear just to be replaced with a serious look. "Because Earth wants it, and has a good marine you'll accept. And keep an I on Williams for me Shepard."

"Yes, Sir," recognising the order hidden within the request.

**Mass Effect**

**Serpent Nebula - Normandy**

Watching from the cockpit as the Normandy gracefully exited the relay, Joker's hands skilfully piloting the prototype warship through the dust cloud towards the Citadel, a massive space station left behind by the extinct race simply known as the Protheans. The citadel sat at the heart of the mass relay network, and severed as the Capital of the intergalactic community, and the home of the citadel council, headed by the three most powerful races in citadel controlled space, the Asari, Salarians and Turians.

Watching with mixed emotions as the mammoth of space station slowly appeared; its five massive arms commonly called the Wards reaching out into space, but connected to a central ring called the Presidium, with smaller spot at the very centre known as Citadel Tower, that was the residences of the Citadel Council. The breath taking scene was intensified with a sun blazing away behind it, casting the space station in halos of light. He was more than willing to admit that the citadel was impressive construct, and could understand why people considered the citadel has the capital of civilized space. However for some reason it felt wrong, very wrong, despite the beautiful scene it displayed, it just felt sinister, dangerous, as he thought instinctively of a trap, before he dismissed it with firm shake of his head.

Silently watching as they steadily approached the ancient space station, several minutes passed before he was able to make out the first outline of ships, a random mixture of merchant, passenger, and warships cycling the station, originating from half dozen different races.

"Look at the size of that ship," Williams proclaim in awe and wonder, the junior officer walking straight past him to look out of the cockpit window, as Alenko sat down in the co-polite seat next to Joker, ending his internal reflection.

"The Ascension, the flagship of the Citadel fleets," Alenko replied, causing him to direct his attention towards the massive asari made dreadnought that approached close to 2.5km in length, position at the very centre of the citadel guard fleet. The dreadnought's presence silently reminding everyone of citadel power and military might, with a trio of smaller dreadnoughts position around it acting as symbolic escorts.

"Well size isn't everything," Joker said dismissively, even as his hands dance over the controls, the Normandy responding beneath the pilot's light touch.

Privately he agreed with Joker's assessment of the flagship, already knowing that the flagship weakness would be to its stern, and its inability to manoeuvre effectively if it was franked. All one would have to do would be get into its blind point behind the flagship and hit its exposed engines, killing its ability to manoeuvre, making it a even bigger sitting duck to incoming attacks. Or just ram the flagship in occlusion course to disable it, which could be easily done with any old junkyard ship programmed with half decent V.I to pilot it rather than using a living crew. Of course you could always load the sacrificial ship with additional explosive to get a bigger bang.

"Why so touché Joker," Ashley countered playfully, sending Joker a smile.

'Good, she getting over the lost of her squad,' he noted, rather happy that the marine was moving on rather than sinking into depression like many would.

"Just saying you need firepower to," Joker countered.

Seconds later the Ascension's main gun finally became visible, "Look at that_ monster_, its main gun could ripe through the barriers of any ship in the alliance fleet!"Ashley voiced, the awe and amazement easily detectable in her voice.

"Good thing it's on our side then," Alenko added, from his place in co-pilot seat.

"First time you seen the Citadel then Williams?" he asked, speaking up for the first time, reminding everyone his presence as Joker started to talk to Citadel control to get them docking clearance.

"Yes sir," Williams added, looking over towards him.

"Let me give you some friendly advice from my own time stationed on the citadel. The citadel is just like any grand old city back on Earth, as soon as you leave the nice, upper class areas like the Presidium, you run across the same crimes that you find anywhere else in galaxy, from drug and weapon smuggling, to murder and blackmail. The deeper you go into the bowls on the station, the darker, seedier the citadel is. It looks nice, pretty, welcoming, but at its very heart it's a nest full of snakes, all looking out for themselves, so just be careful," he advised, as he remembered his own short time on the citadel. "Think of it as a asari maiden, they look pretty, attractive, but they can quickly snap your neck." As Williams nodded in understanding, before looking back out of the window.

"And Joker is right about the Ascension," grabbing their attention again. Realizing they were waiting for him to explain, "In terms of battle it has several big weakness what can be easily exploited by skilled commander with talented command crew. It's mainly a show piece," he lectured, dismissing the dreadnought with a causal wave of his hand.

"Really Commander, explain?" Anderson asked, approaching them from behind.

"First, whilst its main gun could easily destroy a ship as small as the Normandy in a single shot, space however is huge, meaning that even millimetre off in targeting calculations can added up to shot missing by hundreds of kilometres. Whilst its main gun would be highly effective against another dreadnought who's ability to manoeuvre severely is limited, a fast, small ship like the Normandy could easily dodge such attacks with good pilot at helm. Of course with Normandy's stealth systems it make us an even harder target hit, especially at high speeds. And as soon as we get up close, we can out manoeuvre her, dance around her, preventing her main gun from getting a shot. When we would just have to hit her engines to cripple her and she's sitting duck," he explained to listening crew. "And as the damage builds up on her hull, it will put more and more stress on the ship's superstructure, reducing the ship combat effectiveness further because it would force the combat crew to take less aggressive and stressful manoeuvres. Otherwise due to damage superstructure the ship could literally tear itself apart under its own g-forces. Either way, it would play into our advantage. Hence the reason why in one on one battle, the ship has major weakness... It would need other smaller, faster support ships to assist her, to cover her franks and rear, otherwise we could just shot her in ass sir," he offered with simile.

"See, I told you size isn't everything," Joker voiced smugly at commander coming to his aid.

"So why is it just a show piece then," Williams asked.

Smiling at the marine whilst making mental note to encouraged such discussions, "Because of its size, it's _the_ first ship you see after existing the relay and seeing the Citadel. It is position right at the centre, it's a symbol, it implies the Citadel, and the council are the heart of known galaxy. Most people just look at it in awe and wonder, at the power and resources needed to build and maintain it, but it's those same reasons what make it costly and wasteful in combat. Instead it just sits there as a visual reminder, and acts as the council's own private yacht when on business. I looked up its history; the Ascension has never been in combat engagement since its construction, but it has a prize crew that could be better used elsewhere. The reason why it never seen combat is because it double edge sword, the Ascension is so well known throughout citadel space, it firepower boasted about throughout council space by the asari, so what do you think would happen if a ship the size of Normandy took her out? Can you can imagine the morale shock?" he asked the silent crew. "The shock would echo throughout citadel controlled space, and the myth of the council military prowess would be shattered, and that would echoed down through the ranks, bolding the council's enemies whilst undermining their own defenders. You could even take it out with beaten up scrap yard ship piloted by VI into collusion course rather than crew. Just think of it now, this beaten old ship hidden in shadow of gas giant, and rams the flagship as it goes past. Hence it stationed here, where it can be easily defended."

"Also such an open display of military power encourages other newer species to sign the Treaty of Farixen when their first brought to the citadel for negotiations, since it gives the impression that Citadel species has the resources necessary to build ships of this design and size. The Ascension took close to two decade to build... We could build maybe 4 or 5 dreadnoughts, in less than half that time, for the same resources. And these dreadnoughts would see far greater use, patrolling and protecting worlds," he offered.

"The _Commander_ is correct, the Ascension is mainly a show piece, it was built because they could build it, a PR project." Anderson seconded whilst he gave him a curious look. "When did you find all this out?"

Smiling as he answered, "During my short time station on the citadel with that _monster_ hanging over me, it caused me to start thinking about it and its history. So I looked it up on the extranet one day and did some digging, and found some old publications that examined the motives behind the construction of the Ascension Sir," he offered back in explanation, before he turned to Williams. "Of course size helps," he offered with a confidence smirked with teasing wink.

"A bit like the development of nuclear weapons back on Earth during the Cold War, their sheer destructive power stopped USSR and Nato countries from going to war with each other, what would have effective ended billions of lives," Alenko added. "Sometimes just having massive gun is all you needed to create peace."

"Politics, even on warship..." Joker mumbled in annoyance.

"Yea, politics," Shepard agree with same hint of disgust at the topic. "The sad thing is, politics is everywhere, to point even marines like us have to know at least some of it. The more brass you wear on your collar, the more political crap you have to learn to deal with," as he turned to see the grinning captain.

"And we're just about to enter the heart of it," Anderson voiced with confident smirk. "Take us in Joker, so the boys on docks how a proper warship docks."

"Yes sir," Joker exclaimed eagerly, accepting the challenge.

"Given anymore thought about the new job offer?" Anderson asked, as the Normandy approached the docks.

"A job I never even wanted," Shepard countered.

"A job that will earn you a place in history my friend," Anderson voice, as the crew listen into the exchange.

**Citadel - ****Presidium**

Examining the human ambassador, he could immediately tell the Ambassador was obsessed with his image as he noted down the man's expensive white suit, that probably cost more than his monthly wage as marine, as he remembered one of the reasons why he disliked politicians in general. Like any highly trained soldier he instinctively examined the office, mentally marking down entrance points, fields of fire, and cover positions as Captain Anderson stepped forward whilst the Human Ambassador rose from his seat to greet the Captain.

"Ambassador Udina, let me introduce you to Commander Shepard," Captain Anderson offered, starting the introductions as he offered his hand to the ambassador.

"Ambassador," he offered in greetings, noticing that the politician had good strong hand grip.

"Commander, good job on Eden Prime," the experienced politician offered, but he knew from experience that the praise was false; it was just to get him let his guard down around the ambassador. "Of course, the council is a bit annoyed that the beacon got damage by the Blue Suns carelessly activating it," Udina expressed whilst giving him a serious look, making it clear it was part of a cover story crafted by the Alliance to lay blame for the damage done to the ancient prothean beacon on the mercenary group. "After all, they were rather eager to get their hands on a fully intact working prothean beacon. But a partly damage beacon is better than no beacon at all, so it is still the biggest find in the last century for the council, the data stored within could jump our combined technologies by another hundred years," Udina voiced as the politician sat back down behind his desk, before gesturing to the free chairs in front of him.

"Indeed," Anderson agreed, after couple long seconds of thought, before taking the offered chair.

"Indeed, the blue suns were rather careless, but what can you expect from hired thugs?" he voiced, as he took the chair besides his captain as Udina gave him a pleased smile. "Do we know how the blue suns found out about the beacon? Where the information leak came from?"

"No Commander, C-sec, and Alliance intelligence are currently investigating the matter," Udina voiced. "But probably one of the black arms dealers you encountered on Eden Prime sold the information on after hearing about the discovery at the dig site. That is the running theory anyways, but it's still being investigated. Even if the leak is inside one of our organizations, it will probably be cover up to avoid any further political embarrassment. Now onto the council and your soon to be sprectre status," Udina announced eagerly, like a pleased child. "You will soon have the honour of being the first human spectre in human history, allowing us to continue our climb to council chambers," as Anderson shifted uneasily in his chair.

"That might be a problem," Anderson voiced, as Udina face suddenly turned sour at statement.

"What do you mean Anderson?" Udina demanded.

"Shepard here isn't interested in becoming a spectre," Anderson voiced, as Udina gave him a look of disbelief.

"Why...why wouldn't you want to be a spectre?" The shock politician demanded, clearly finding his hesitation difficult to comprehend.

"One of the reasons why I joined the Alliance military was to protect humanity, the species from her enemies, and this _will_ force me to challenge my loyalties to Earth and the Alliance. It will force me at times to put other species interest above our own, and that I don't want to do," Shepard voiced, explaining his reasoning.

"You're not xenophobe are you?" the Ambassador accused.

"Don't insult me ambassador," he countered, his anger slipping into his voice as the ambassador flinched back as if he was struck by a physical blow. It was clear that the ambassador suddenly realized that he had unintentionally insulted one of the deadliest men within Alliance ranks, a Special Forces soldier that could snap his neck in heart beat. "I have no problems with other species, but not all of them are friendly towards us, and I don't want my duty to Alliance to be challenged. If I became a spectre, the question would be who do I obey? The Alliance or the Citadel Council? What if I was order to undertake an action that directly went against the Alliance security interests' ambassador? If I was forced to kill other Alliance marines in name of the Citadel, I'd be called a traitor," as the room suddenly became quite and tense. "I'm no traitor."

Several long minites past in muted silence before the scheming ambassador spoke up again. "So that is your main ponit of objection then Shepard? The fear that your duty to the Alliance and Humanity and your duty as a Council Spectre would be conflicted?" Udina asked carefully.

"Yes, that is my main concern. Then there is the fact that Spectres get paid crap for risking their lives on daily bases. They have to fund all their own combat gear, all their operational costs, and there is no way I can afford it. It's hardly a job, when I earn nothing for my troubles," Shepard offered with grin. "I want to retire with at least some of my pension intact, spending it just to save an ungrateful turian's ass isn't going to happen ambassador. Duty and honour is nice, makes you feel good, but it doesn't pay the bills."

"That I _can_ understand Commander," Udina announced with cheerful smile. "I never understood why the council believes that the hounor and prestige of recciving the rank alone are enough of a reward," Udina readily agreed with smile. "After all, why should a highly skilled opervative such as yourself have to pay for your own combat gear, when you are acting on the galaxy behalf... Risking your life for ungrateful people that are not even your own species." The politican said thoughfully whilst stroking his hairless chin. "How about this Shepard, you will keep your command as Alliance officer, therefore your still duty bound to protect the Alliance and her people from harm. The Prime Minister and I considered that you may have needed some extra encouragement to take up the offered position. The Alliance will make a yearly payment of 5 million credits a year into your private bank account, for every year your a Spectre. We will also cover your basic running costs, but any additional items you purchase that don't come from Alliance approved armourily will come out of your own back pocket."

Considering the deal, he weighed up the pros and cons of the offer for good minite, but the lagre sum on money eventually presuded him to agree to the offer. "I accept ambassador, but I would like this in writing, and I would need part upfront to cover intial running costs," he stated, knowing better than not to get a offical contract.

"That is reasonable commander," Udina voicedin agreement. "Let me make this clear Shepard, the council is devided on the matter whether humans should be allowed to join the prestigious ranks of the Spectres. Their still hesitance to even allow human C-Sec officers, but with our growing numbers in citideal control space have forced the issue for us. The only reason they end up agreeing was the fact that we are willing to share the prothean beacon with them. So their eyes will be on you commander, watching you, judging you, and indirectly Humanity. The media will also hound you, politicans on all sides will try to maniplaute you for their own benefit, your choices will challanged by thoses who wish to tannish you and Alliance."

"Explain," Shepard demanded, his headache growing rapidly as Udina gave him angry look, clearly did not liking the idea of being challanged. "If I'm to keep _my _spectre status I need to know what I'm dealing with, and what backroom politics are going on." He added, as Udina gave him a nod in understanding, realizing it was in humanities best interest to inform their chosen candiadate of the current political situation.

"Let's start with the basics, as you know the council is spilt over the matter of allowing humans to join the ranks of spectres, only us sharing the beacon, and myself calling in alot of political favours has allow us this chance to promote a candidate, I.e you to the position," as Udina gave him look that said 'don't fuck this up,' before contining with his political leacture."The Turians will naturally block anything on principle that see Huminity status increase beyond that of secondary state power within citideal space. They fear our protentional to surpast them, to replace them. They have allways been the miltary muscle of the citideal council, and now Humanity as turn up on the scence and challanged his belief in their miltary surpemacy. Yes they won the First Contract War, but we had only been activtily explosing space for 20 years at the time. They now see us as threat to their position and role. Then there is the fact that most of their senior leaderships were lietenaints, or had family servering during this short, but intense war between us, hence they still carry this grudge of us being the old 'enemy'. Sure they have the biggest fleet, but they know we have the reasources and technology to match them if needs be."

"Alright, the Turians see us as rivals, what about the Salarians?" he asked, wondering what the lizard like race motives were.

"The Salarians are smart enough to realize we are a rising power within council space, whilst they are not opposed to this power, they naturally want to control it and directed into senerios that benitfit their own ends... Much like how they did with korgan orginally, but they understand we're not simple brutes that can be manipluted and played. Hence they are very much a balancing force on the council, and will follow the most logical and reasonable course of action. Of course they will have whole departments resereching possible political senerios, however they will only act against us to limited any teachnology developments that threaten their own market interests. They know that we can compete against them if the playing feild was more level, hence they use poltical tools such as taxations, clever and complex trade traffs to protect their markets. Salarians as a rule of thumb will allways avoid direct confrontation unless its albsolutly nesscessary, perfering to manipluated the system to their benefit."

"And the Asari?" Shepard asked, wanting to get the politican opponion of the eldest of the citideal races, and the founders of the citideal council.

"What do you think of race of dancers and consorts?" the politican spat, as he composed himself. "Our cultures have alot of similarities, plus our extremely smailiar physical appearance has lead to good relations with them on a cultural level that few other species can achieve, hence they are willing to support any ideas of futher cultural intergration and unity. But at the same time they are a conservative race that dislikes rapid change, this is rather predictable given their extremly long life spans of around thousand years. To them, we're to bold, to aggressive, like a new born child wanting to explore, but naturally considering their don't consider their own childern of adult age until they see hundred years of life, they see us of as childern. But they as a species favour long term policies in goverment dealings rather than quick fix solutions, even if that policy could have to last a century or two to be truly effective."

"They think that as a race we need their gaurdiance, their wisdom, hence they will often side with the Turians to stop any proposal that upsets the norm for them, or they believe to be to bold or radical in nature. But at same time they are very much for compenmise, and cooperation over direct conflict and action, given their nature of being able to mind meld with any species, it allows them to see to heart of the issue. And naturally due to them being the first race to discover the Citideal, they have that natural smugness that saids, we're better than you." Udina voice in a grumble, clearly refering from his own experinces.

"However on the darker note, they like to pull strings, maniplute other races. Everyone dances around the asari in the realm of politics Shepard. In terms of ecomonics they have the single biggest ecomony in council space, with most of the trade laws centre around their designs. And that ecomonical power gives them alot of pull in backrooms of politics. Money talks is suitible expression to describe this situation, but then you have thousand year life span to build up a bussiness empire, and all the connections and personal favours that come with it, you start to understand why their so successful and powerful. As a rule, the older the asari is, the more political pull she has at her disposal. Of course, due to how their culture works, she will have her own circle of younger asari followers are her disposal, who will have their own areas of influeance, and possibly their own followers, not mention their family links. However they gaurd their biotic interests aggressively to ponit they have a vital monoploy of biotic technology throughout citideal space, they will oppose anything that challanges that momoploy. Trust me from experince its best just to leave that momoploy alone."

Giving some thought to the ambassador chosen words, "So their like a spiders sitting in a middle of a massive web, but a web you can't see?" Shepard voiced. "Whilst at same time posing seductivly, asking you to join them."

"Excaltly," Udina seconded with amused smile. "I'll have alliance intel forward you some docuements on citideal politics."

"Ambassador, would you say it would be in my, and indirectly humanity's best interest to make some contacts amongst the asari? To try to tap into that web for our own benefit?" he asked.

"Yes, it could benefit you, but be careful," Udina voiced.

"Now the next most important group is the Volus," Anderson stated from his chair. "They have the second biggest ecomony in citideal space, and our responible for developing the galactic ecomony as we know it. They are reasonable species of traders and bankers, but they are client race of the turains."

"What the captain here is saying, is that their fine with handing your money and doing bussiness with you, but if you upset them their run to the turians. The Volus hold alot of influeance in turain socaility, to ponit the turians and volus are pushing for Volus to be given a seat on the citideal council. If our own position is raised with the glaxacy, to ponit that humans are started to be apponited as council spectres, the Volus will expected their 'seat' to be given," Udina expressed. "However the Asari and Salarians will block this, since it will be effectivly giving two seats to one species. If we are ever granted a council seat, the Volus will be as well probably. The other minor species aren't a major concern... those are the main political players on the citideal."

"Alright, sounds simple enough," Shepard stated.

"Good, remember commander the eyes of Humanity and the galaxy are on you, and some species would like nothing more than you to fail." The human ambassador declared. "I need to talk to Anderson in privite commander, may I sugguest you contact your ground team and tell them the alternative story to what happen to the prothean beacon..."

"Yes sir," Shepard easily agreed, reconsiging the dismissal.

**End of Chapter**


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